


Failed

by ChokolatteJedi



Category: Bones (TV)
Genre: Angst, Attempted Murder, Bingo, Challenge Response, Community: 1-million-words, Episode Tag, Episode: s03e14 The Wannabe in The Weeds, Gen, Gunshot Wounds, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-14
Updated: 2014-03-14
Packaged: 2018-01-15 23:33:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1323406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChokolatteJedi/pseuds/ChokolatteJedi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Booth has to face his fear</p>
            </blockquote>





	Failed

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 1MW bingo prompt, "Facing Fear"

As Booth lay in the hospital bed, confined to a small, guarded room until his funeral, he did a lot of thinking. He could have watched the TV, but it was just too surreal to see all of the news coverage about his own death, so he had turned it off fairly quickly. Instead he laid there and thought.

He thought a lot about how Parker and Brennan and the others were all handling this situation, with having to pretend that he was dead. He hoped they were alright. Part of the time he was thinking about the plan to catch Hutchinson, and the schedule for the funeral that Pierce had given him. This was probably their only chance to ever catch the bastard, and Booth didn't want anything to go wrong.

But mostly, he thought about the shooting.

It had been such a momentous accomplishment - getting Brennan to let down her barriers and sing for the group. He'd been enjoying the moment so much, and he'd been so glad that his plan had worked. The others were enjoying it too, and the moment had seemed so perfect, before it had all been ripped away.

It wasn't that he had been injured, or that Brennan had killed someone again, though he had never wanted that to happen if he could help it.

No, the woman had come looking for Brennan. And if she hadn't warned Booth, she would have succeeded in shooting her - maybe even killing her. She had really tried to kill Brennan.

Epps had done it before, of course, and the gravedigger, and- and really, she needed to stop going out on cases because this was an unacceptable amount of risk. Booth, quiet frankly, was afraid that if she stayed out in the field with him, Brennan might die. It had been a nagging fear for years, but since his own near-death experience it had come to haunt his nightmares far more regularly.

Booth didn't want Brennan to die. He didn't even want her to come _close_ to death. He wanted her to stay safe inside the Jeffersonian at all times. He had the manpower to make it happen, too.

But the one thing he couldn't command was Brennan. If he left, she would probably find some other agent and continue to do fieldwork on her own. Even if she didn't, he had heard her stories. This was the woman who went to places like Darfur, to dig up corpses under armed guard, for _vacation_.

He might be afraid of Brennan dying, but in her usual counterproductive way, Brennan wasn't afraid of her own death. He might try to keep her safe, but without her consent it would never work.

And honestly, that was his biggest fear. Walking out of this room and going back out on the streets with Brennan. Knowing that she was safest with him than with anyone else. But knowing that the safety he promised might not be enough. He had already failed her too many times. What if he failed again?


End file.
